Madmoments: or First Verseattempts By a Bornnatural. Addressed to the Lightheaded of Society at Large, by Henry Ellison |
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A NIGHTSTORMSEASCENE! |
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 | Madmoments: or First Verseattempts |  |
A NIGHTSTORMSEASCENE!
The Clouds are piled in wild confusion, likeThe fragments of a World just broken up,
In Giantshapes of gloom: and dim, the Moon
Faintraying makes but darkness visible,
As tho' she dared not gaze on such a scene!
More rayless grows the Night, for from the face
Of Heaven she's swept; and straight the Mountainclouds,
Like Icebergs, in collision dire clash,
And forth the Thunder's pent-up Fury leaps,
Like some mad courser plunging thro' the Sky;
As tho' the Stormfiend's steed had cast the rein,
And with his Thunderhoof and Lightningeye,
Was dashing past upon his midnight-track
Of murkiest darkness, while at each dread stamp
Heaven's shuddering vault seems rent; at each far flash
Of his dilated Eye, the cloudwreaths shrink,
Up withered like a scroll, beneath his glance,
That ploughs the womb of night up far and nigh
With Light unutterable — then, a pause,
A fearful Lull broods on the sulphurous air,
As when Hate gathers up his outbreathed might;
And save a nervous quiver all seems still!
The Giantclouds are stirless, and the fiend,
The Stormfiend hovers on highpoisëd wing,
Like a vast vulture, ere he swoops down on
His cowering Prey: but, hark! a thunderpeal
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Of gathering wrath; and every teeming cloud,
As 'twere a spirit's shroud, is rent in twain,
And flash on flash, and peal on peal, in bright
And quick succession pour; while the mad winds
Sweep the wild Panorama o'er the sky,
O'er glen and echoing vale, o'er flashing stream,
Foaming in fireflakes through forestshades,
Whose moist leaves sparkle like a thousand Gems,
And o'er the towering Mountain's brows, awhile
Crown'd with flamewreaths, then clothed in tenfold Gloom.
At fitful intervals, with ghastly smile,
Like that, which comes and goes, on dying Cheek,
Thro' her cloudveil, the Moon steals out, now dark,
Now dim, now brighter; as the varying Winds
Sweep the stormfragments, dense or thin, away;
Still some stray Thunderclap, with far off growl,
Dies, like a muttered curse, upon the gale,
As down below the Horizon's verge, once more,
The Stormfiend hurries with his panting Steeds,
Into Chaotic Night; and as he sinks,
The Ocean's yeasty breast seeths wild and high,
Flashing in foam and fury 'neath the tread
Of the wavespurning steeds, whose thunderhoofs
Strike lightning thro' the Deeps, as tho' they were
Ploughed in firefurrows, and each foaming Crest
A cataract of light, o'ercurving down
To the dark Gulf below! a moment, and
Night strews a deeper mantle o'er the scene;
And save the sullen Dash of hurtling waves,
That fall tumultuous, as with a dead,
Unsinewed weight, Silence broods o'er the Deep,
And Terror, clothed in Darkness, with her sits!
| Madmoments: or First Verseattempts | |